Lady Gaga Got Rid of Her Tattoos for the Golden Globes!

Lady Gaga took home her first acting award at the Golden Globes on Sunday, and being that the majority of us were distracted by her supposed kerfuffle with Leonardo DiCaprio, who was apparently startled by Gaga brushing past him on her way to the stage to accept her award, it took a couple of days for it to dawn on us that Lady Gaga was completely tattoo-free during the awards ceremony! Unlike her appearance at the Emmy Awards last year, where Lady Gaga’s tattoos were on full display, as usual, the singer/actress chose to cover up her extensive ink for the 2016 Golden Globe Awards.

So how exactly did Lady Gaga get rid of her many, many tattoos? She enlisted the help of professional makeup artist Mike Mekash, who worked on the movie Mad Max: Fury Road as well as the television show American Horror Story. Fitting, since Lady Gaga’s Golden Globe win was for her role in American Horror Story: Hotel. According to Mekash, he used an acrylic adhesive-based makeup and skin illustrators to cover up Lady Gaga’s tattoos, which he says, “looked great on the red carpet and on stage when she WON! And for 99% of the press photos.” There were a couple instances, under harsher lighting, where you could see the makeup covering her tats.

As for the why behind her tattoo cover-ups, you’d have to ask Lady Gaga herself. For someone so obviously intent on being unapologetically herself 100% of the time, it’s interesting that she chose such a public platform to show off her new ink-free look. On the other hand, if she’s really trying to break into the movie biz, it makes sense that Lady Gaga would go for a more understated, less in-your-face look for the awards ceremony. It’s even possible that Lady Gaga, who hasn’t debuted a new tattoo in more than a year, is over her ink. Could there be a more permanent tattoo cover-up in Lady Gaga’s future??

For those of you who didn’t notice Mother Monster’s ink-free look at the Golden Globes, check out Lady Gaga’s tattoos in all their glory here!